F1 2012 - Teams and Drivers - Who goes where?!

Nice find.

So... the final HRT seat... who do we think. Sutil? Rubens? one of the ex STR guys?

EDIT: Dam it. Just realised that rather than people bashing on about the historical significance of "Senna in a black and gold Lotus" we are now going to get "Senna in a Williams".
 
Last edited:
Petrov is rumoured to be replacing Trulli at Caterham. Chandhok is racing WEC next year. Sutil will be in prison. And Kathikeyan is just useless. Everyone else is the metaphorical hobo fighting over a half-eaten sandwich.
 
Another bad year for Williams then.
Not really sure it will be to be honest, Senna has a little experience with the Renault engine and some of the engineers are the same from Ayrton's time, so it could be quiet interesting. not forgetting they kept Maldonado who has had time with the team...

Williams need a change to go forward, Rubinho has had his day and many more, most experienced driver on the grid and Williams had their worst year ever = time for a change and a few risks.
 
I just see this as the start of the slippery slope before Williams leave the sport - having two drivers who bought their seats doesnt seem to me a long-term plan to turn around its fortunes, just a short-term injection to keep it afloat...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Another bad year for Williams then.

Yep worst season in F1 is going to be this one not the last...

That or one of the two will be the first driver to loose their seat for punting the other off. Heard it here first!

Hope Rubens gets a seat somewhere to do something fun, be a shame for him not to go do something fast and good.
 
AT&T jumped ship a few weeks ago. Anyone know if Williams have a new title sponsor (or any new sponsors for that matter) in the pipeline?

Looking at Senna's shirt in the pic on the Williams site it has an Embratel logo which I'm guessing is funding Senna and the PDVSA logo which is Maldonardo's meal ticket.

Could be one of them will become the new title sponsor too.
 
Looking at Senna's shirt in the pic on the Williams site it has an Embratel logo which I'm guessing is funding Senna and the PDVSA logo which is Maldonardo's meal ticket.

Could be one of them will become the new title sponsor too.

So basically, Williams are now heavily reliant on their drivers bringing in sponsors, as opposed to the team itself, bringing in the main sponsors. This is not a good strategy UNLESS, one of the drivers owns/runs the team.

I still believe that the main problem with Williams is money. If they could employ some top sales staff to bring in some sponsors (which is not easy when the car is performing so badly) to increase revenue, which in turn can be used to employ some top end engineering/design staff, who in turn can produce a better car.

If you go back to the mid 90s when Williams had a comparable budget to other leading teams (excluding Ferrari...who had a ridiculously big budget), other teams were thinking of ways to increase future revenue. McLaren decided to associate their name with Mercedes and push their brand (the name McLaren is synonymous with Mercedes - a huge name in car production worldwide). They also built a huge production facility in Woking which would be used exclusively to produce commercial vehicles (for profit).

Imagine, if Williams, during their heyday had produced commercial vehicles, endorsed by Mansell, Prost, Senna, Hill, Villeneuve (these are some of the biggest names in the history of F1) and even Montoya...they would've made a small fortune. Ferrari made full use of MSc's name. Vodafone are making full use of Hamilton and Button's names. Williams failed to capitalise on their assets.

To be honest, when you look at things from a commercial stand point, Williams are clearly an old-school team, who are unable to compete against teams who are more commercially astute. For me, it all comes down to money and Williams are completely to blame for not having enough of it and being subsequently forced into hiring rent-a-drivers, who are unable to extract the maximum from the cars.

I remember, reading a comment on these forums stating that an F1 team should not be run as a business. Well, the Williams F1 team is living proof of what happens when a team is not run as a business.
 
Its a fine line. Some teams are pure racing teams without major commercial ties and have been very successful. Williams themselves are evidence of this from their 90's success.

But your right, money needs to come from somewhere. Either directly into the team through sponsors, which goes hand in hand with success, or through other business aspects of the team or its parent companies.

Williams has neither, and are suffering.

Frank needs to sell up or partner up with someone with lots of money and a drive to progress the team. The day's of car manufacturers are gone, now its the time of big money business men with airlines and soft drinks companies looking for a bit of fun and global brand exposure. Frank needs to get in bed with someone before he looses the bed entirely.
 
Last edited:
Its a fine line. Some teams are pure racing teams without major commercial ties and have been very successful. Williams themselves are evidence of this from their 90's success.

Note: that this has not happened in recent times.

If you look at the big 5 teams:
RBR - a pure racing team, bank rolled by Red Bull Drinks company
Ferrari - a pure racing team, who are bank rolled by Fiat
McLaren - a part racing/part commercial team who couldn't find anyone to bank roll them, so they decided to earn extra revenue through their brand/racing by selling road cars
Renault* - funded heavily by Renault, though it isn't clear where they get most of their money from. Did Renault officially pull the plug on as being a works team...I have no idea?
Mercedes - bank rolled/funded primarily by Mercedes road car company.

In summary, you either need to find a wealthy benefactor (or company) to bankroll you OR you need to create some form of commercial arm, which will help increase revenue (in addition to sponsor money) which you can pump into your racing team. Ferrari (sort of) fall into this category as a lot of their road cars use F1 tech and sell off the back of their racing antics.

*I'm not 100% sure on Renault
 
Yes Renault (the car company) don't have any more links with the race team, although they did when they when they won their championships...

At the end of 2009, the Renault car company sold a 75% stake in the team to the Genii Capital investment company. At the end of 2010, Renault sold its remaining 25% share to Genii, which then decided to enter into an alignment with Group Lotus.

They are still obviously running Renault power but the new name should make it a little easier to follow.
 
Yeah, they are just a Renault engine customer now. RBR actually have more of a tie with Renault now through the Infiniti engine branding deal.

It is odd that 'Lotus Renault' in 2011 will mean something very different to 'Lotus Renault' in 2012 (sponsor-team in 2011, team-engine in 2012)
 
Back
Top Bottom